Short Cuts

Beyond basic buffets

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June 01, 2001

Meetings & Conventions: Short Cuts June 2001
June 2001
Short Cuts:Beyond basic buffets

It now takes only about 15 minutes and $54.95 to learn a whole
lot about designing creative buffets. The secret is a new CD-ROM,
Buffet Blueprint: A Visual Buffet Experience, by Ginger
Kramer, owner of Coast Special Event Architects in San Jose,
Calif.

Volume 1 in a forthcoming 10-disc series, the instructional
CD-ROM outlines 10 themes, illustrating how the buffet is created
in stages. Topics include Breakfast in the Outback, Afternoon Tea
in Japan and Dinner at the Russian Palace.

Other useful tidbits:
• Guidelines for passed hors d’oeuvres, such as a list of simple
no-nos: “No picks, no sticks, no bones, no tails, no stems, no
drips, no pits, no shells, no mess.”
• Creative ways to present hors d’oeuvres by using silver
teaspoons, Chinese soup spoons, shot glasses, scallop shells and
petite sushi plates.
• Serving tray ideas, such as bamboo steamer baskets or picture
frames with the client’s logo placed inside.
• Suggested “tray liners,” ranging from colorful aquarium rocks to
corn husks or even crumbled Oreo cookies, so that when the food is
finished, there’s still something decorative on the platter.
• Box lunches served in anything but boxes: Try Frisbees, beach
pails, knapsacks or children’s lunch boxes.
• Alternatives to traditional tables, like baker’s racks, carts and
wagons, art pedestals or wooden credenzas.

Volume 2, The Great American Buffet, will be released
July 15, featuring themes from regions across the United States.
For information, call (408) 244-9700.

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